Instead of hitting the malls on Black Friday after Thanksgiving (does anyone still do that?), my sister and I went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Even though Winter, (the dolphin who lost his tail and used a prosthetic tail) recently passed away, there are still other rescued dolphins to see. We spent the morning walking around the huge tanks watching them play. They have since taken in a new dolphin, Apollo, who was rescued near the space coast across the state. Apollo was stranded and really sick. He was found to have lost his hearing which made him unreleasable back to the wild so he will now live at the aquarium.

One of the dolphins was playing with a ball, pushing it around. He would pop it with his snout and then go chasing after it.

There are 2 rough toothed dolphins that live in the outside tank. The other dolphins at the aquarium are bottlenose dolphins.

Rudy and Rex have a great view (although it’s hard to take pictures of them in the shade). We were able to see them up close.

The dolphins don’t do tricks but if you are there during mealtime you might catch them playing around.